On February 10, 1763, the representatives of the crowns of France, Great Britain and Spain signed the treaty ending the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763) in Paris. Two hundred and sixty years after it was signed, the Treaty of Paris remains for many the sign of Canada’s “abandonment” by Louis XV^e Anniversary of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham.

The term “abandonment” is disproportionate and should be avoided as it does not reflect the real effort that went into preserving New France. Between 1755 and 1760 more than 8,000 soldiers and officers were sent to the colonies of Canada and Île Royale (now Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia). This is much more than for any other French colony (for comparison: 4,500 combatants were sent to India during the conflict, and Saint-Domingue, modern-day Haiti, received a reinforcement of 5,000 men at the end of the war in 1762). .

The “few acres of snow in Canada,” to quote Voltaire, have therefore benefited far more from metropolitan military attention than the rich sugar islands of the West Indies, so often decried in Quebec as “favoured” in Canada at the peace negotiations. Historian Boris Lesueur notes that in 1758 78% of the French troops present in the Americas were assigned to New France (Canada, Île Royale and Louisiana) versus only 22% in the West Indies. Guadeloupe and Martinique, taken by the British in 1759 and 1762 respectively, would have much more legitimacy to protest a military “abandonment” by France.

Far from a “surrender,” Canada’s sacrifice in 1763 was a response to the cold reality of a catastrophic conflict for France. Even if the diplomatic customs of the time did not guarantee the preservation of militarily conquered territories, the negotiations that led to the signing of the Treaty of Paris presented a particularly difficult situation for French decision-makers: Canada had been French-occupied since September 1760, and power in India was reduced to zero , the main West Indies were under British control and the integrity of the kingdom’s territory was jeopardized by the capture of Belle-Île in June 1761.

Even the late support of the Spanish ally in 1762 does not change the situation, the Spanish intervention ends in a fiasco and the loss of Havana and Manila. In these conditions decisions had to be made, and Canada, a colony not very profitable and difficult to defend because it was too large, weighed not heavily against the West Indies, whose trade was essential to the kingdom’s finances.

Québec’s Musée de la Civilization hosted the Paris Treaty in the fall of 2014 during an exhibition that was being shown outside of France for the first time. It is no exaggeration to say that this document is the most important in North American history given its continental and global implications. The Royal Proclamation of 1763 created the “Province of Québec” and reserved lands west of the Appalachian Mountains for the natives, despite the greed of British settlers who had fought the French for those lands.

This U-turn by the metropolis, which was perceived as a betrayal, contributed significantly to the outbreak of the American Revolution. The existence and rise to power of the United States, in turn, will trouble the British provinces, which will merge to form Canada in 1867. Furthermore, there is no need to remind of the influence of our southern neighbors on the world, as…

Let’s also not forget the importance of the year 1763 for the Aborigines: Legally speaking, this year marks the beginning of relations between the First Nations of Canada and the British Crown. Indeed, more than two and a half centuries of French diplomacy were brushed aside and the political and diplomatic vacuum left by France was immediately (awkwardly) taken up by the British Crown, personified in the early years by Commander Jeffery Amherst.

Administrators and departments responsible for Indigenous Relations have replaced one another over the centuries, most recently the Department for Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs being created in 2017. This succession therefore follows directly from the consequences of the Paris Treaty.

From this perspective, the anniversary of the Treaty of Paris seems an opportune time to commemorate the ancient alliances between the French and Aborigines. Not that they are far from perfect (let’s not forget the foxes and the Natchez), but they were certainly based on a fundamentally different perception of the division of territories and a rapprochement between nations.

The historian Gilles Havard in particular was able to prove that for the French of the time, “of course, the word ‘rule’ does not necessarily rhyme with ‘submission'”. We can then ask, is it not possible to draw inspiration from that period to improve the relationship between government and First Nations today? It’s certainly a file to dig for.

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